Rupert Murdoch critical of White House stance on SOPA

Prepare for a lot of SOPA talk in the coming days. The controversial Stop Online Piracy Act suffered a few setbacks in recent days, with House Majority Leader Eric Cantor promising that no vote will happen until all sides can agree on the bill’s main points. More importantly, a White House blog post came out against any potentially harmful legislation that “reduces freedom of expression, increases cybersecurity risk, or undermines the dynamic, innovative global Internet.” It wasn’t a direct SOPA indictment, but the message is clear enough.

Now, News Corp. chairman and CEO Rupert Murdoch has responded to the White House comments on Twitter with some harsh words. “So Obama has thrown in his lot with Silicon Valley paymasters who threaten all software creators with piracy, plain thievery,” he writes in one tweet. He then goes on to call Google a “piracy leader” for streaming free movies and putting ads around them, an apparent knock on YouTube.

Murdoch later stepped back in a subsequent tweet, calling Google a “great company” that is “doing many exciting things.” His concerns boil down to “only one complaint, and it’s important.”

Make of all of this what you will. Most will readily agree that SOPA, in its current form, has the potential to do more harm than good. Murdoch and his fellow SOPA supporters obviously see things differently. Where do you fall? Do you agree with Murdoch’s points?